


Return

by prosaicwonder



Series: Chasing the Dragon [4]
Category: Beyblade, ベイブレードバースト | Beyblade Burst (Anime)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Headcanon, One Shot, Spoilers, Subtext, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 17:37:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10518588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prosaicwonder/pseuds/prosaicwonder
Summary: In a way, the monotony of his day-to-day routine had been broken.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place a few months after Escape, and ends after the events of anime season 1. The scenes written entirely in italics are meant to be flashbacks.  
> This will probably be the final part, but if I ever do write another related one shot it will be added to the series too.  
> Do not read this part if you have not finished watching anime Season 1 Episode 51 and don’t want to read spoilers for that episode!  
> Edit: Fixed the ending to this part. I think they’re probably more in character now gfdkjg

The national tournament had passed quicker than expected, and soon, the team and I found ourselves already preparing for the next one.

 

This time, though, it had been more difficult to predict the outcome: even I had my doubts about Lui at one point. However, the outcome was the same in the end. Perhaps he really was an undefeatable ‘perfect blader’, as dubbed by the media, or that he really worked ten times harder than any other blader. I refused to believe that the outcome was a fated one: was there really such a thing as destiny?

 

Then again, our meeting five years ago had been unexpected, too: it made a part of me wonder if it had been destined to happen from the start.

 

Somehow, I found myself thinking about the events which led up to the finals. It was the first year in which Valt Aoi competed as a blader, and also the first year in which I began to see a change happening in Lui.

 

* * *

 

_"What's that?" I asked Lui one day after school. He was holding a white envelope which had been opened, and his eyes had been fixed upon the words which had been written on the piece of paper inside._

_I refrained from peering over his shoulder, waiting for him to tell me... or not._

_"Nothing much, just some letter from the other Spin Emperor, Zac." Lui replied, an air of nonchalance in his tone. He shrugged as he pushed the paper back into the envelope. Letter...? Why would Zac send him a letter-_

_"He wants me to appear at his dumb party," he suddenly said, as if he could read my mind. So that was the reason... still, why would Zac invite Lui...?_

_"Why, if I may ask?" I said, and he let out a soft sigh in mild irritation. Years of being together with Lui meant that I'd know that his annoyance wasn't directed at me. Not this time, at least._

_"So that his group of 'fans' can stand and gawk at me like the rest of those idiots do at all the tournaments, probably." Honestly, I really wished that Lui wouldn't say things like this sometimes._

_"When is this party?" I asked. He gave me a flat stare in response before saying his real answer._

_"This weekend." he replied, and then he turned to walk away from the school building._

_Quickly, I followed behind him, our steps falling in sync with each other as we walked. Suddenly, he had ceased his movements and remained still with his back turned towards me._

_"Gou." he spoke._

_"Yes?"_

_"There's no need for you to come with. This is probably going to be a waste of time anyway, so I won't be there for long."_

_I bowed my head in understanding, even though he could not see me do it._

_"I understand."_

 

* * *

 

_"Did you really have to say that?" I asked Lui as we met up at school the next week._

_During the previous weekend, I ended up going to Zac's concert anyway. The team did not join me though; I had arrived before Lui did, and had been standing by the stage on which Zac and his teammates had been performing. Suddenly the announcer had called out Lui's name, and his face appeared on the giant billboard on the stage. Apparently, he was coming by ship, and he had been standing at the front of the deck with his arms crossed and his usual confident expression._

_Back then, I also thought that Lui would be annoyed with me once he found out that I went to the venue despite him telling me not to, but I couldn't trust him to be there alone... he could be really unpredictable sometimes._

_Plus, I had to make sure that he would not break any of the team rules. He was still part of my team, despite what anyone else thought, and Lui was no exception to these rules either. There was no way that he would be allowed to partake in outside battles._

_Naturally, when Lui had arrived, hundreds of excited bladers wanted to get up close to him. They envied and admired his power, his skill and the fact that he won four consecutive titles in a row; however, none of them accepted his personality. It made me wonder if that was why Lui hated being around those people, or if it was for another reason._

_One especially persistent guy managed to push his way through and challenge Zac to a battle. Before this, he had tripped and nearly fallen to the ground, but I managed to grab him in time._

_That guy - Valt Aoi, from Beigoma Academy - had managed to score a point against the Spin Emperor Zac. Everything about him seemed way off, completely unpredictable... even more so than Lui._

_And that was around when the incident happened._

_"I don't mince my words in front of anyone." Lui replied as we stood in the school passage, before finally looking up at me. "Not even for you, Gou."_

_"Even so, you cannot tell someone you don't know that they are a terrible blader." I told him. "I understand your way of thinking, but over here things are different-"_

_"If you understand, then stop talking about it." he interrupted, cutting me off. "I'm not changing for anyone."_

_The conversation ended as he turned to walk into the classroom door, leaving me behind._

_'Lui...'_

 

* * *

 

_At some point during the national individual tournament, I had met Lui after practice outside the training centre we’d go to every week._

_"Lui, I know you value your solo training the most, and you said yourself that you are not interested in the team tournament." I had told him._

_He did not answer as he was waiting for me to finish, so I continued:_

_"I just wanted to know, why did you battle in the team tournament this time?"_

_He turned around to face me, his violet eyes staring into mine._

_"I wanted to fight Valt Aoi." he said, before adding: "He reminded me of you."_

_So that was it, I had thought. Lui was not the type of person to battle someone when he felt like it; perhaps he saw something in that guy that piqued his curiosity. There was my apparent 'straightforwardness' and 'wholehearted approach' to Beyblade - and then there was that guy, who may have possessed the same qualities...?_

_Regardless, it was a battle I wanted to see too. Not many people brought out that side of Lui - it had made me look forward to their battle even more._

 

* * *

 

Around a week after the national tournament ended, I had met Lui again in his usual training room. He stood in front of the cable machine, with his left hand gripping the handle in preparation.

 

It was difficult to determine exactly when things began to change, but what I knew for sure was that things had been different ever since Lui met Valt Aoi.

 

I started to notice little things, such as the way Lui would talk to others became a bit less harsh, the way he would join the team in the audience to watch others battle, and the way he no longer cared about being admired or cheered on by others, us included. Sometimes during practice, he would even approach the team on his own, asking – no, demanding – that we all battle together.

 

Perhaps I had changed too, I had thought. It was possible – I believed that I would always be a work in progress.

 

I had thought a lot during the past year about how my diligence had slipped and became something else; how I began to overlook some of the strict rules I implemented on my team. Before, I would go to check up on Lui out of concern and duty, and I’d speak to him about the team and other things to do with any upcoming tournaments. Over time, this had progressed to more normal types of conversation, and eventually, I would tell him about whatever I had been thinking about. He’d tell me to shut up whenever I spoke about more personal topics, but he would always stop to listen to me.

 

In a way, the monotony of his day-to-day routine had been broken. And that had made me hopeful: I wanted to show him that there were more important things in life than training day and night. I wanted to take him out to places, to spend time with him and just do normal things together like most friends do. I wanted him to stop isolating himself from others, from his team… from me.

 

I couldn’t accept the thought of Lui living the rest of his life this way, like a machine who would never experience happiness because he was bound to becoming the strongest.

 

So I had a plan.

 

* * *

 

“This is the fifth time…” Lui said one day as he stood in front of the cable machine as normal. The handle had just clicked back into its usual position, and he was getting ready to pull the wire out once again.

 

I watched him pull the handle with one swift motion. This time, I had been standing next to the machine, inches away from Lui.

 

"You're not happy then?" I asked. I knew what he was already going to say.

 

He turned around to face me with a glare. “I’m sick of this.”

 

"He would've beaten you if Longinus hadn't tripped."

 

Silence.

 

"Lui, did you want him to win against you?" I spoke again. He then let out some sort of disgusted noise at that, before turning back to face the machine again.

 

I said nothing as I watched Lui pull the wire over and over again, doing one of the only things he knew how to do.

  
After several long minutes, he spoke again: “Gou.”

 

My face remained calm as his violet eyes stared into mine. "What is it?"

 

Yank. Whirr. Click. Repeat.

 

"I'm going back to the States for a while." he said. I had not picked it up then, but later I realised that there was something odd about the way Lui had spoken that sentence.

 

Trying to keep a stoic disposition, I asked him: “When do you leave?”

 

“Next Friday.” he said.

 

"Okay."

"I might not come back."

 

I had made a mistake back then of letting the wide-eyed expression of shock show on my face. Despite him not looking at me as we spoke, I knew that Lui had seen it; yet, he said nothing.

 

"I understand.” I forced myself to reply. The fake smile didn’t feel right on my lips at all. “Thank you for letting me know-"

 

"Is that all you have to say?"

 

I stared at him after those words were said, my fake smile disappearing in a split second. Lui’s usual angry expression was back, and he had glared at me with a ferocity which, admittedly, no longer fazed me now. There was a difference between Lui’s wrathful moments and instances like these, which were more difficult to describe… it was more complicated in this case, since it was more difficult to tell what he was thinking.

 

“What do you want me to say?” I eventually said, testing. A few seconds passed as Lui had stopped his actions again, pausing to glare at me some more.

 

“Just leave.” he whispered harshly, turning back to grab at the handle again.

 

“No.” I said, making him stop midway.

 

“What did you say?” he said, turning back to face me as his hand dropped to his side. His voice was low; deadly, even… but I saw right through it.

 

“I won’t go.” I repeated, taking a step forward and giving him my most serious look. “You wanted a reaction from me, didn’t you?”

 

No reply.

 

I took another step forward and placed a hand on his shoulder.

 

“That’s why you told me. Or am I wrong?” I asked him. Again, Lui did not speak.

 

“I’m guessing that you still haven’t told the others either. You don’t have to tell me the reason why,” I told him before smiling softly.

 

“But I’ll just say this: thank you.”

 

The harsh anger seemed to dissipate at that, and the wrinkles between his eyebrows had faded until he was looking at me with a neutral but serious expression.

 

“Is there a problem with me telling you?” Lui eventually said, making me chuckle lightly.

 

I removed my hand from his shoulder before replying: “No.”

 

We stood in silence for a few moments, the cable machine positioned next to us, unused and forgotten for the time being.

 

“It’s good that I came then,” I said, breaking the silence. I smiled down at him and continued: “There was something I wanted to ask you.”

 

Lui looked at me as if to ask what it was, before rolling his eyes and reaching for the handle once again. “If you want to talk about team matters, do it at school tomorrow-”

 

“I didn’t come to talk about that.”

 

His hand stilled on top of the handle of the cable machine before he had turned around to look at me.

 

“Then what?” Silence.

 

I took in a breath before speaking my next sentence. There was a chance that he would say no, but I thought I’d try anyway.

 

“I was wondering if you had any plans this weekend.”

 

Lui blinked once, then twice; before that, his eyes had been filled with surprise. That expression faded soon enough, and then he had let out a sigh before he spoke again.

 

“You know my answer to that.” he said, before his attention shifted back to the machine in front of him.

 

“Yes, I probably do know.” I replied as he yanked the handle once again. “You don’t have to say yes, but it would be good if we could do something different this time.”

 

The cable slapped the ground behind us.

 

As the machine whirred and the handle was pulled back into its original position, Lui was silent the entire time.

 

Finally, he spoke again. “Like what?”

 

“You tell me. What do you like?”

 

There was another pause as Lui stared down at the ground in thought, looking as if he was thinking hard about the question. I already knew the answer to the question, but decided to ask anyway since there were still things I could learn about him. Lui also tended to be surprising sometimes: it was one of the things I liked about him. I thought that it was interesting for someone like him to have such a structured routine.

 

Suddenly, Lui looked back up until his eyes were staring into mine again. Hidden beneath the depths, there was another strange mixture of emotions that I couldn’t recognise immediately.

 

“I’ll call you later. Get out.” he said.

 

I let out a laugh as I turned around to walk out the door.

 

* * *

 

The week had passed by quickly, and soon, the weekend arrived. I would be lying if I said that I had not been nervous for our meeting. It had also been stressful to make the arrangement as we had both been preoccupied with school work and Beyblade practice; a part of me wanted to be upset at Lui for not telling me that he was leaving until the last minute…

 

But I couldn’t let that side of me shine through; as his friend and team captain, the best thing I could do was remain as calm and supportive as possible. He needed to save all his energy for the World Championships, after all.

 

I had been sitting outside Lui’s usual stop as I waited for him. Soon, the bus arrived and he hopped out, nearly getting lost amidst the large crowd of people outside.

 

Somehow, he always managed to make it to my side. I looked down to see him tugging at the black fabric of my usual vest I wore, and I smiled as I greeted him as normal. From outside Lui probably looked angry and unapproachable, but the look in his eyes told me that he at least a little happy to see me.

 

“Well then, let’s go.” I said, and we both made our way across the street.

 

The rest of the day passed by in a blur. We ended up doing much more than I thought we would, in the city that we had both known for so long – in the place where we had first met. Strangely, the thought of practicing did not cross my mind at all that day. It made me wonder if it had been the same for Lui.

 

What would he do if his routine did break? Did it even matter, since he was going to leave soon anyway? …

 

“Why are you spacing out?” Lui’s voice suddenly cut through my thoughts.

 

I looked down at him: the sun had begun to set and hundreds of city lights illuminated the growing darkness around us. The light reflected in the depths of his eyes as he stared up at me with intensity; it made my breath stop at the back of my throat and filled me with an indescribable feeling.

 

“Sorry,” I told him, and he seemed to understand. A few moments of silence passed before Lui spoke again.

 

“There’s one more thing I want to do before I go,” he said as he reached for something inside his pocket. He pulled out the familiar blue-and-white Beyblade and held it in front of me; the draconic red eyes of Longinus seemed to glow brightly like the city lights nearby.

 

“Battle me one more time, Gou.”

 

Despite the loudness of the city and the people chatting around us, his voice was as clear and sharp as ever. The fire within him was still there; it reminded me of the time that he challenged me to a battle all those years ago.

 

It was bittersweet knowing that this moment would be over soon. Yet, I could not – and would not – let him see how I felt. Not yet, anyway.

 

“Alright.”

 

* * *

 

In no time at all, the following week had also arrived.

 

During the week, the class had said their farewells to Lui. As usual, he didn’t speak much around them, but I noticed that he seemed less agitated around them. The team had also organised a surprise party for him – an unusual feat since we had all been stuck in the same routine for years. Things really did change after all.

 

And that Friday had – unforgivingly, perhaps – also arrived in next to no time, and I found myself standing in the airport terminal with the rest of my teammates as he stood in front of us, ready to enter the security queue.

 

At that time, I could not tell what he was thinking at all – not even when I had looked into his eyes. Yes, there was probably a lot I still had to learn about him, still.

 

We looked at each other for what seemed to be a long time, his eyes unblinking, his form unmoving. None of us dared to speak for the entire moment, until Lui finally opened his mouth:

 

“We’ll be in touch.”

 

He was looking at me – somehow, only me – before he turned to fix his gaze onto the rest of the team. Wordlessly, he stepped away to walk towards the growing queue, the chatter of the other people around us like white noise.

 

The rest of the team waved their goodbyes as he reached the front, and even after he had passed through the gate, we had remained standing in the same place for several long minutes.

 

“Come on, let’s go.” Shinki said, and we all turned around to leave until the queue was out of sight.

 

‘I’ll be watching the next match, Lui.’ I thought as we walked out of the airport building. Looking up at the starry sky, I allowed a small smile to form on my lips.

 

‘Until that day comes, I’ll be waiting.’

**Author's Note:**

> And it’s complete…!! I really enjoyed writing about these two: they have such an interesting and complex relationship and with both of them being introverted, it was fun to write their thoughts and actions rather than focus on the dialogue itself.  
> First person POV is surprisingly tough to write... It was also difficult for me to even think of these two as friends but they definitely do have some sort of friendship and mutual respect for each other, given how long they’ve known each other for. (5+ years?? Gou is probably the most patient guy in the world for putting up with Lui for so long lmao)  
> Thank you for reading!


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